"Stay Out of the South" - Calvin Vollrath and Clinton Pelletier - Red Bluff Session

Calvin shares how he discovered Swing music and some of the legendary fiddlers who influenced and broadened his musical horizons. "I grew up an 'Canadian Old Time Fiddler'. We listened to Don Messer, Andy DeJarlis, Al Cherny, Graham Townsend, Ned Landry, Reg Bouvette & many others. Jigs, reels, waltzes, fox trots and that kinda stuff. I played for 'Country Socials, weddings, company parties, whatever. We'd start the night with 3 polkas, then 3 waltzes, then 3 two-steps, then maybe a butterfly, heel & toe polka and so on. Not much singin' goin' on in those in the bands, mostly instrumental. Then I joined a band called 'Clearwater' when I was 21. A great band of top drawer musicians in Edmonton and they played country, big band, rock & roll and pretty much whatever people wanted to hear. They were great and I got to love other music than just fiddle music. I was directed to listen to Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys. Pay special attention to the fiddler, Tommy Jackson. That was 'country fiddle'. So I did... A couple years later I joined a full fledged country band that had a steel guitar player. He knew how to get great sound out of it and that was such a treat. He loved the swing stuff the most and got me hooked on it as well. He introduced me to the music of Buddy Emmons who was arguably the most infleuntial steel player in the world. I wanted to do what he did, but on my fiddle. Now it was the world of Bob Wills, Asleep at the Wheel, Johnny Gimble, Buddy Spicher, Vassar Clements, fiddlers I never heard before playing a different style that I knew. I didn't learn note for note solos from these guys but what I learned was they all had their own sound. They didn't play alike but they all played with so much passion and improvised freely, well it was contagious for me and it gave me the green light to step outside the box and explore. I'm not exactly sure where I heard this tune or picked it from by I've been playing it since the 80s and it possibly may been a recording of the Farr brothers, Hugh & Carl Farr. I don't know for sure... Now I'm an 'Old Time Country Swing Latin Rock & Roll Fiddler' that has no plan of attack 'cause I'm playing from my heart and not a rule book." C.V. www.calvinvollrath.com